On the Friday it was a bit quiet in the morning, but it began to pickup later, while there was a good Press and Dealer turnout as there were several new product and new range launches allocated to this show. And not to forget that this Hi Fi show was allied to the well supported Headroom show, while on the second floor ‘Champagne Suite’ there were literally hundreds of headphones and earphones to try out. There were live music events throughout, plus a whole series of seminars, presentations and demonstrations. There was also a gallery of famous rock star and rock band photographs by top rated photographer Ross Halfin .

​Audiophile products distributor Absolute Sounds ran a two day series of presentations at the prestigious West End audio store KJ West One, both for press and public. Absolute Sounds audio technology chief Pedro Jorge Luis has been keeping an eye on the more recent developments at ML now that ML Chief Audio Technologist Joe Voijko, a 20 year veteran of the company, has really got his teeth into high end hybrid moving coil /electrostatic loudspeaker design. Two important developments were brought to our attention, the recently introduced, part active Renaissance Series and new to the UK, the massive and purely passive Neolith flagship weighing nearly 400lb each, where most of this mass is down to the bass section!

​While a broken hotel lift conspired to make the exhibitor’s workload that much tougher, working through the night on the day before, by the opening on Friday 19th pretty much all was in place, up and running. For the three days there were queues round the block to get in at the opening despite the unusually chilly weather, fortunately rain and snow free.

​Clarity, the UK Hi Fi trade association, held their annual trade event at Dolby Soho Square, with a packed set of presentations including a brief introduction to Dolby Vision (HDR), an upcoming video standard delivering higher contrast, 4,000:1 and said to be a greater performance gain visually than current 4k is over 720p. There is a higher contrast high def format already, HDR 10, which ideally is a tasty 10-bit resolution at up to 1,000 nits. Dolby Vision will do up to 4k nits (and it really is really bright with a good laser projector!) at a 12 bit dynamic range. In addition, like the Atmos sound standard optimising the playback sound channels, this video format adapts and scales the incoming data to best match the video playback you are using. Seen at 2016 CES several manufacturers have adopted it including Vizio and LG.

At Grahams HIFI, London​Renowned Naim hi fi dealer Grahams was the venue for the physical launch of the new smaller MUSO. Naim’s one box music player MUSO was a new venture last year and has done well, penetrating the web and high street quality music box market exemplified by the range stocked by John Lewis. The Muso itself was viewed initially with some suspicion by Naim customers and dealers as it is not a traditional Hi Fi component but it has penetrated that market too. Naim’s MD Trevor Wilson explained that there has been a gain in NAIM audio component sales from new customers who have got on so well with their Muso that they also want to experience NAIM component audio.

Reporting for the January issue of ProSound News, Clive Young discussed the vinyl revival, with 9 million LPs sold first 6 months of 2015 and reaching the limits of the installed base of reconditioned old presses. He noted that the vinyl revenue was higher than that generated by music streaming, some 36% greater at $221 milllion also over the past 6 months.

With backlogs lengthening, brand new and redesigned record presses are now being built at about $100,000 a throw. Jack White was quick to order eight of them to go with his new record store, Third Man Records, based in Detroit and hopes to have them up and running in late spring 2016. Just how long the vinyl revival will run we have no idea.

Naim brief the PRESS on the technology and explain the rollout of the new DR augmented line of NAP power amplifiers:

​With a good attendance of UK Press: Hi Fi News, Hi Fi World, HIFICRITIC, Haymarket (What Hi Fi and Gramophone) and Hi Fi Plus, NAIM expanded on their earlier Munich Show announcement for the new DR amplifiers, at that stage previewed as prototypes. The day began with an introduction by the new CEO Trevor Wilson, who noted that NAIM sales were still rising and that their commitment to the traditional hi fi separates market would continue, especially in respect of the close bond which has been struck with historic customers and enthusiasts. After rolling out Spotify compatibility, Tidal was the next project and NAIM have worked closely with Tidal to get the project underway smoothly. I agree with Steve Harris that access to Tidal is undoubtedly a great asset especially for validating potential purchases but in a high quality system, in our view, Tidal does not quite provide the particular subjectively connected quality of live replay from a raw CD.

Before and after NAP series amplifiers laid out for inspection, with Trevor Wilson at the head of the table flanked by Paul Messenger (left) and Andrew Everard (right).